The Me…

There was this dog that lived down the road from the house where I spent 11 years of my adolescent and early adult life. Every night after the whole street went to sleep, it would stay up and howl its head out. And then there would be some unfortunate souls who’d pass through the street in their scooters and fancy bikes. The dog chased after every one of them, barking and growling furiously, night in and night out. If there was a scooter passing by at night, you’d hear a dog howling and barking with it. Safe in my bed, I pitied those who had to drive through at night with the dog on their heels and said a silent prayer wishing them safety.

Five years after I moved on from that house and from my city of Bangalore, I realized something.

The moving scooters had been the constants. The dog chased them only because they were there to be chased and because it had always done that. And after a while it could no longer remember why it chased them and what it would do if they stopped…